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Buzzards in very real trouble….due to ‘Natural England’!!

Natural England has just issued a licence for someone to kill up to ten buzzards “to prevent serious damage to young pheasants”. Here is their statement: 29 July 2016 Natural England issued a licence last night permitting the control of up to 10 buzzards to prevent serious damage to young pheasants. The licence is time-limited […]

2 thoughts on “Buzzards in very real trouble….due to ‘Natural England’!!”

Up to ten Buzzards are to be killed on this shooting estate “to prevent serious damage to young pheasants.” My question might seem flippant, but it is serious: how is it possible to determine whether or not an individual Buzzard in the vicinity of the rearing pens poses any threat of harm, never mind SERIOUS damage? What is the definition of “serious damage”? And what happens to the Buzzards which fill the ecological niche vacated by removing (i.e.killing) ten Buzzards from their territories? Is Buzzard number 11 then allowed to wreak havoc? How would the limit be enforced? The whole concept is ridiculous, and must surely prove that English Nature is not fit for purpose, if it can’t explain the flaws in this licencing procedure to a court. It seems particularly ironic that we have reached a stage in the history of UK nature conservation that we are prepared to allow the cull of a native species to ‘protect’ a non-native introduction, one which causes untold ecological harm to the natural heritage of our countryside (over 30 million released each year). If English Nature or RSPB cannot successfully challenge this ruling, the precedent is open to all pheasant shooting estates to apply for a similar licence. That would only be fair, wouldn’t it? And the grouse shooting mob are backing a Defra Hen Harrier “recovery plan” which involves Hen Harrier “brood management,” a cover plan for thinning them out to way below the natural population level. The RSPB have wakened up to this con and have now pulled out of the partnership, only to be accused by the game shooting lobby about not caring for the future of the Hen Harrier. Supreme irony.